,,,''Pinion's Story'' is a choose your own adventure story written by characterconsultancy on deviantart. I have been fortuante enough to be given the okay to post this as a twine story.
[''//Summary//'']<sum|
(click: ?sum)[ The end of the world is at hand and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stride forth. Unfortunately, due to an unfortunate celestial mishap, the Horsemen have all incarnated as flamingos.
Follow Pinion - Death itself in flamingo form - as it identifies its life's purpose. It's going to need your help: not only did it hatch a long way away from the other Horsemen, but it's also trapped in a zoo.]
Feel free to [[begin]] whenever you're ready.In a typically sunny and bright corner of California there is a zoo. Like many zoos it has a wide variety of birds and animals. I'm your narrator and I'm going to tell you the story of one of these animals.
[[==>->p1]]I could tell you the story of the lions, who never got the chance to hunt like lions are meant to... but that would just be the story of a group of bored big cats who saw their [keeper]<keeper| as their psychological and emotional lifeline from going completely mad with tedium.
[[==>->p2]]
(click: ?keeper)[ (replace: ?keeper)[keeper (who kept them entertained as best she could with the limited resources available)] ]Or I could tell you the story of the elephants, who still remembered the old songs of their ancestors and passed them down from one generation of captive calves to the next; deep, rumbling affairs meant to travel over much bigger distances than the elephants had access to in their little round enclosure. Somewhere along the line they had forgotten to pass on to their calves the fact that wide, wild spaces like the Savannah existed, so as a group they no longer fully understood exactly why being able to sing across huge distances might be helpful.
[[==>->p3]]And don't even get me started on the polar bears. They were clever enough to outsmart seals but never had anything more taxing to do than sit in an enclosure looking cute for humans... you know what? I didn't want to get started. Okay. Okay, I'm done with that.
[[==>->p4]]No, all of those animals were in a human-imposed dead-end. Neither their bodies nor their minds had very much of anywhere to go. The story I want to share with you is about a flamingo.
[[🦩->flamingo]]At first glance, the flamingos were in just the same metaphorical boat as every other creature in the zoo: trapped physically in a large, open-topped enclosure, and mentally by the lack of vision that one would expect of any living thing born in captivity. So, I hear you ask, where's the story?
The story, my friend, is of the hitherto unrealised potential of one particular flamingo, named Pinion.
[[==>->f0]]It was a typically glorious late afternoon. The tourists had all gone for the day and that gave the zookeepers the time to catch up on some ad hoc animal care. For the birds, this meant regular wing-trimming to render them flightless. The zoo had designed all of the cages based on the same core layout which was originally based on designs appropriate for land-bound animals, and for some reason lost to the annals of substandard logistics, administration, or perhaps the Friday afternoon musings of a zoo director who just wanted to knock off for the day, it was deemed that rather than putting a roof or a net over the bird enclosures, they could have animal enclosures and just be trimmed of their primary feathers on a regular basis.
[[==>->f1a]]"Who's that?" Pinion half-whispered to Web.
"Don't know," came a reply that was warily dismissive either of Pinion, or of the unfamiliar human and their strange offering.
Pinion took this opportunity to pretend to itself that Web was wary of the unfamiliar human and not of it.
Quill dipped its head in between the two young flamingos. "This is a wing-trimming," it told them.
[[==>->f2a]]"Don't you remember? Maybe you were too young. The feathers of our wings grow big so they cut them."
Pinion half-opened one of its wings and examined it, turning it to better see its pale pink surface. "Why?"
"We don't know," Quill said.
"Maybe they're afraid we can fly?" Web asked.
[[==>->f3a]]That prompted Quill to explain further, although Pinion could tell that its patience for Pinion was running out. "Look at the sparrows and crows." It stepped to one side and nodded towards the sprawling human-feeding station beyond the flamingos' cage. Sure enough there were wild birds there, pecking at the morsels the human crowds had left behind. "They don't look like us. Their necks and legs are short. They're made for flying. I believe that we are not for our necks and legs are too long, and that if we fly we will hurt ourselves." Then, giving Pinion only the most cursory of nods goodbye, Quill wandered away, its breastbone pushing against the flanks of other members of the flock in its eagerness to get away.
[[==>->f5]]Pinion's thoughts were interrupted as the two humans cooperated to open their object - which Pinion now identified as a low segment of fence - and use it to trap the flock.
The birds backed up, wheezing and honking with anxiety.
"The keepers do it for our own good." Langoustine's authoritative voice caught Pinion's attention. It turned its head to look at the flock's leader.
[[==>->f5a]]But again, Pinion couldn't quite accept this line of reasoning. It felt incomplete or wrong somehow. Pinion was still holding Langoustine's gaze and trying to put a name to its sense of dissatisfaction when the leader took a decisive step towards the low fence.
[[==>->f6a]]The second human had a complex-looking object in its grip. Its claws were linked through two holes in the object and that allowed it to make it change shape from a shining grey X to long and tapered. The human put this strange contraption against Langoustine's wing so that the bottom primary feather sat nestled within the X, then it used the two holes to close the object and three of Langoustine's feathers fell to the ground.
Pinion was shocked. It waddled to the front of the flock to take a closer look.
[[==>->f8]]Feathers, cut in half. Why did that seem so sacrilegious to Pinion? Flamingos couldn't fly; both Quill and Langoustine had said so. Pinion tried to remind itself of the elders' reasoning: the humans were protecting them from hurting themselves. This was an act of kindness and care on the part of the humans. And yet, another look of those cut feathers - and more of them fell with every snip of the contraption - broke Pinion's heart.
[[==>->f9]]It turned and pushed its way through the flock, its breast parting its flock-mates in its hurry to escape the scene, its legs allowing it to take long strides.
Pinion reached the back of the flock and found that they truly were backed into a corner. It loitered beside the weeping willow trunk and tried to avoid the disapproving or wry glances of the older birds, unsure of what else it could do. From that safe distance Pinion watched the final moments of Langoustine's trimming.
[[==>->f9a]]Pebble was the next to be picked out of the group, and like Langoustine before it, assumed a passive, curled-and-bent position. Its primary feathers were cut two or three at a time, one wing and then the other, and then it was released to join Langoustine, who already stood one-legged in the pond as if all of this was nothing but a casual routine.
[[==>->f10a]]The untrimmed group got smaller, the pile of half-feathers got taller, and the humans periodically moved the fence section to reduce the available space for the untrimmed. Pinion backed up each time until there was nowhere left for it to go.
Finally, Pinion was the only untrimmed flamingo left.
[[==>->f11a]]It stood to reason. No flamingo liked to have a keeper in the cage, and it seemed that the sooner all the flamingos were trimmed, the sooner these two would leave, taking their strange contraptions with them.
Pinion made one final attempt to think of a way out of the trap, but had no choice but to give up.
[[==>->f12a]]What do you want Pinion to do? Should it...
- [[Try to fly?->choiceFly]]
- [[Talk with Langoustine?->choiceTalk]]
- [[Show the tourists what the keepers have done?->choiceTourist]]You want Pinion to try to fly? My good friend, I trusted that you were a kind soul but now I wonder if you have a streak of cruelty in you. Either that or you're aware of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' 5 Stages of Grief and expect to see Pinion go through a denial phase for the sake of its own sanity.
Hmph. Well, let's see how it turned out for Pinion, shall we?
[[==>->fly1]]That seems like a fair choice. Let's see whether Langoustine can be a bit kinder this time. Goodness knows, Pinion needs it right now.
Pinion stalked into the pond, its wings half-unfurled with discomfort. The other flamingos seemed especially wary and gave the young bird enough space that it didn't have to jostle anyone out of the way. As it strode through the water it made eye contact with Langoustine.
The leader responded by half-unfurling its own wings and puffing up its feathers. "Be calm," it commanded.
"Why did you let that happen?" Pinion demanded. It could feel its heartbeat pulsing in its neck.
"I said, be calm," Langoustine repeated, its tone anything but soothing, "if you're going to speak to me."
"I don't understand! Why put us through all of that when we can't fly anyway? If our wings are that useless then what's the harm? Don't they want us to fly?"
Langoustine's stern look turned into an outright glare. "Wings tucked, feathers down, voice quiet." It was an instruction.
Pinion looked from Langoustine to Pebble, who stood to one side. Pebble's expression was hardly any more accommodating. The elder wanted Pinion to calm itself. Pebble paused and then shook its head, before looking away.
Pinion's having a bad day, isn't it? But it does have a choice now. What would you like it to do?
- [[Insist on a satisfying answer from Langoustine?->demand]]
- [[Try to cajole Langoustine into giving a better answer?->cajole]]
- [[Find some other birds to talk to?->otherBirds]]Pinion could see that it wasn't going to get much sympathy from the other flamingos so it gave up trying and stalked off to the grassy bank to be as alone as any flamingo could be in this cage. With perhaps a little too much indignation to befit its intention to turn in for the night, it stood on one leg, tucked its head under its feathers, and tried to sleep.
It sulked for quite a while but eventually nodded off.
[[🦩->tour1]]Pinion came down from the bank at daybreak. It coolly ignored the keeper who came in with a bucket of food pellets to throw around, and nibbled only at the ones that had fallen closest to it. It had no desire to be among the flock too much.
The sun rose higher and the human visitors started to come. At first only a few wandered by, usually adults with their little ones, and some stopped to stare at the flock with the same wonder and admiration that they always did, and that neither Pinion nor any of the other flamingos had ever fully understood.
[[==>->tour1a]]But Pinion was not going to be put off so easily. It paraded back and forth, its wings held stiffly down to make its cut primaries spread out. Surely they could see!
The humans laughed at this display.
Could they not see?!
The humans clearly aren't going to get the message. Maybe Pinion should do something else. What would you like it to do?
- [[Strike the fence and scare the humans?->strike]]
- [[Attack the keeper->attack]]?Pinion shook with rage and in that moment, lost its temper. It stretched its neck out and screamed its frustration at the humans for their utter stupidity, then it raised one of its feet and kicked at the fence.
It didn't rattle as much as it did whenever the bald-headed storks kicked their own fence. Flamingos just didn't have that kind of strength. Having webbed feet probably didn't help either.
[[==>->strike1]]Pinion shook with rage but saw that the human visitors couldn't, or wouldn't, understand what was wrong. It honked in frustration and stalked over to the far corner of the cage, away from the humans and the other flamingos so it could have space to think and to plan.
If it couldn't rally the visitors then it would have to change this situation itself. It looked at the storks, who weren't paying the flamingo enclosure any attention at this moment, and remembered that there were times when they threatened their own keeper.
It had never seen them attack a human successfully, and the keeper always seemed to know how to discourage them, but what if Pinion attacked its own keeper? Could it catch the human unawares?
[[🦩->attack1]]It waited for the evening feeding. The sun passed across the sky and the light began to turn the familiar rose-gold of evening. The human tourists thinned out from crowds to a trickle, and eventually stopped coming entirely.
Then the keeper came in with its usual bucket of food to spread throughout the cage.
That was Pinion's moment. As the keeper entered the cage the flamingo rushed it, its wings spread wide to make it look big, its neck out straight and honking with rage.
[[==>->attack1a]]Pinion caught up with it, clashed breast-first against the bucket, and followed up its attack by kicking at the human's legs. It honked as loud as it could, a tirade of noise to scare the human away.
The human backed up a few steps. "What's up with you?" it asked.
Pinion didn't know or care what it had said, only turned to shout to the rest of the flock for support. "Come on! If we all attack like this we can win!"
Not a single one of its flock-mates joined the charge.
...ohhhh dear, oh dear. Pinion's put himself out there for sure, and we all know what they say about he who dares, but maybe this one didn't quite work out. What do you want Pinion to do next?
- [[Try to convince Langoustine to take revenge on the humans?->convinceLang]]
- [[Try to convince the flock as a whole that the wing-trimming is wrong?->convinceFlock]]Oh dear! You really don't like making things easy for Pinion, do you?
"Langoustine!" Pinion yelled. "Surely you can see this is folly! Why do they see us as... mere spectacle? How dare they?"
"The folly, Pinion," Langoustine intoned, stepping forward as if to speak for all of the flamingos, "is all yours. We do not, and will not, attack the humans. Go. Calm yourself. Now."
Langoustine knows how to take control of a situation, I'll give it that. There's not a great deal Pinion can do at this point so I'm going to make an executive decision and give you just the one choice this time.
Let's watch Pinion take some time out.
- [[Take some time out.->observe]]Well sure. Pinion may not have good claws for digging, but I'm pretty sure it can dig itself just a little bit deeper into the hole it's gotten itself into.
"Why do you insist on letting yourselves be subject to //their// will? Why?" It shouted at the rest of the flock.
Nobody responded. Many red pairs of eyes watched Pinion for its next move, some amused, most nervous.
"These are our wings!" Pinion continued, "not theirs! They can't do this to us! How dare they? Why do they not do this to themselves if they like it so much?"
"Enough!" Langoustine thundered, and came forward as if to deal with Pinion once and for all.
I think you've, uh, 'chosen' yourself into a corner. There's only one option now: Langoustine won't have it any other way. So you might as well speak up for yourself, right?
- [[Demand a satisfying answer from Langoustine.->demand]]"Wow, so pink!"
"What's it doing?"
"I don't know, some kind of mating ritual?"
Pinion didn't understand the words but their tone seemed amused, or as full of wonder as usual. The sight of its wings seemed didn't seem to make any kind of helpful difference.
[[==>->tour3]]...You're either very reckless or very optimistic. Okay then, let's have Pinion argue with Langoustine some more and see how well that turns out.
Pinion trembled with outrage. "No! I can ask these questions if I want to! They can't do this to us!"
"They can, they have, and they will continue to do so." Langoustine stared Pinion down, its beak high and its red eyes glaring into Pinion's own.
[[==>->demand1]]That sounds as good a plan as any.
Pinion watched as Pebble wandered away and used the distraction to let some of its anger drain away. It took a deep breath and exhaled, letting its feathers smooth themselves against its back and tucking its wings properly against its sides.
Finally it looked at Langoustine again. "I'm sorry, Langoustine. You're right, I'm just not used to it."
Langoustine's stern look held for a moment, and then the leader reluctantly relaxed too. "Very good." It watched Pinion, waiting for the younger flamingo to wander away, but instead Pinion spoke again.
"Do you think they'll ever let us grow in? And, you know, leave us like that? I'm sure..." Pinion tried to think of a good reason for the humans to not trim their wings. "I'm sure they don't want to have to trim us. It must be boring for them."
Langoustine gave Pinion a curious, guarded look. "They are the ones who care for us. Without them we would never eat and would have nowhere to live."
"But we don't know tha-" Pinion blurted before remembering its goal: to get onto the leader's good side. "I mean, we rely on the humans so much that maybe we're more capable than we think-"
"You're restless," Langoustine told it. Its tone had an air of finality to it.
Pinion opened its beak to disagree but then it saw the flash of warning in Langoustine's eyes, and closed its beak with a clack.
Langoustine turned away and Pinion couldn't help but feel that there was a whiff of contempt in the gesture.
Well, Pinion tried, but I guess it just wasn't to be. What would you like it to do now?
- [[Find some other birds to talk to?->otherBirds]]
- [[Be quiet and observe the other birds for a while?->observe]]
- [[Fight Langoustine?->fight]]Pinion gave Langoustine a final, plaintive look, and then wandered away to find some friendlier bird to talk to. It went to the edge of the flock and looked around at the surrounding cages.
It had never liked the storks - they were hostile, so it wouldn't talk to them. It looked in the opposite direction.
[[==>->otherBirds1]]Ah, the parakeets! They were small, friendly, and there were enough of them that a few birds always hung out near the fence.
[[==>->otherBirds1a]]
(click-append: "friendly")[ (at least, they always seemed to enjoy talking with the other flamingos. Pinion itself hadn't tried talking with them since it was a chick, at least not alone)]Keen to be friendly, Pinion took one more step closer, opening its beak slightly in an avian smile.
That stopped the birds in their tracks. Some flew away or inched along their perches away from the fence to exclude themselves from any conversation, and a few watched Pinion.
"I hope you don't mind me bothering you," Pinion began politely. "Maybe I can sit here and chat with some of you?"
One of the more confident birds dipped its head towards Pinion, lifting its tail high as it looked down from its perch. "Why? You have a whole flock of your own kind."
[[==>->otherBirds3]]That hurt Pinion more than it cared to admit, but it tried not to show it. "I do, but we're neighbours, aren't we?"
"Neighbours," the parakeet agreed. "Not flock-mates."
Pinion could already feel the conversation slipping away from it, and knew it was going to lose it even as it opened its beak again. "I've seen parakeets and flamingos talk before. Is it so bad for me to do the same?"
[[==>->otherBirds4]]That must've hurt! It seems like Pinion's just that little bit more isolated than it was before. Well, you're right: maybe the careful and considered approach might work better.
Pinion walked away somewhat shakily. The painful truth was, it had always felt different from other birds, and other birds always seemed to feel that about Pinion too. No matter what it said or did, it always seemed to be in the wrong.
Was it just fundamentally bad somehow? Surely that couldn't be!
[[==>->observe1]]That one little gesture filled Pinion with rage. Oh boy, now Langoustine's done it. Or maybe you have. You chose this path after all.
Pinion launched itself at the leader, knocking it onto its flank and into the water. Langoustine's neck and head followed and its head slapped the surface of the water before being momentarily submerged.
[[==>->fight1]]It found a vacant spot in the grass and lay down, away from the other birds. Pinion rested its head on its back and gazed into space, and gave itself time to think.
Wherever other birds were in their various pecking orders, they always seemed to fit. Whatever a bird's place in its hierarchy, high or low, its flock-mates accepted it as such. And yet, Pinion had seen discord before. Fights for dominance or food. Dominance also meant that a bird's ideas prevailed whereas a lower-ranking bird's would not. The top bird would lead, and the rest of the flock would follow.
Was that why Pinion had such a difficult time in the flock? Was it because Langoustine disliked it? Pinion had always been vaguely aware of which birds in the other cages were the dominant ones. Could it be that the other bird species were responding to hierarchy too, and took the flamingo leader's lead in distrusting Pinion?
[[==>->observe2]]It was a frightening thought. And yet, something else spoke within Pinion's heart: this was about more than merely being liked. Of course Pinion wanted to be liked, but it wanted more from life too.
Power. Did it want power, to be at the top of a hierarchy? It would make sense for a young adult flamingo like itself.
Pinion frowned to itself as it tested that thought out for itself, and then shook its head. Power wasn't it. Or that wasn't quite it.
To show off its talents? No; Pinion didn't consider itself to be talented. To be an individual? That wasn't quite it either; for all its isolation, Pinion valued being part of a flock. To have influence? That hit home!
[[==>->observe3]]Was influence power? Well, it seemed similar, but somehow influence seemed far more like it! Encouraged by this thought, Pinion looked around for further inspiration. Who was influential, and how did they do it?
Crows lingered around the cage, eating and chatting with one another just as they always did, their black plumage as striking as ever. Their social structure had always seemed loose and non-committal to Pinion, but they were well-respected by the caged birds as sources of information, and well-liked for their entertaining storytelling about the world beyond this world of cages.
Respect. That seemed important. Pinion let that thought settle at the back of its mind and kept on thinking.
[[==>->observe4]]What about the storks, it wondered? Pinion had never been able to tell which of the storks was the leader and as far as it could tell, they disdained authority, whether from each other or from the keepers.
And they were strong! Did strength equal the ability to influence their own destinies? None of the storks had a leader, so was that simply a cage of leaders with no followers? If so, what did that mean? Pinion tucked that question away in the same place as its curiosity about the crows.
That left the flamingos' other neighbours: the parakeets. They were the most socially complex of all the birds. It wasn't that their hierarchy was strict. Indeed, Pinion was convinced it wasn't. But it was complex and active, and respect seemed something that could have been earned by any member of the flock. How did a parakeet go about becoming influential within its flock?
[[==>->observe5]]With its head full of so many questions, Pinion decided to get some answers.
Hey, now this feels more optimistic! What do you want Pinion to do now?
- [[Talk to the crows?->crow]]
- [[Talk to the parakeets?->parakeet]]
- [[Talk to the storks?->stork]]Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.Double-click this passage to edit it.Pinion spread its wings. It had done this before occasionally, out of pure instinct or to beat its wings a little for exercise, but it had never flapped with intent to try to leave the ground. Now it did.
Its wings chopped through the air without giving any feeling of lift. It lowered its head to put its back into the effort and worked harder. Alas, it was to no avail!
It refused to look any of its flock-mates in the eye; it didn't want to see their looks of pity, fear, or amusement.
[[==>->fly2]]The sound of a raspy chuckle behind Pinion made it stop. Pinion folded its wings hastily, snapping out of its fit of anger, and looked cautiously over its shoulder.
Two storks had come to the opposite side of the fence and watched with a gleam of amusement in their eyes. "Nah, keep going! That's the funniest thing I've seen all day!"
The other stork cackled and the pair watched Pinion for a little longer.
[[==>->fly3]]Pinion decided against saying anything and simply did what it could to save face. It folded its damaged wings, and slowly started to pick at the grass and meander towards the pond.
At length it heard one stork say to the other, "Meh. Come on. It's over."
Maybe you should choose more wisely for Pinion. What would you like it to do now?
- [[Talk with Langoustine?->choiceTalk]]
- [[Show the tourists what the keepers have done?->choiceTourist]]The parakeets who were still paying attention to this simply looked awkward. Two murmured to one another and then flew away, and that prompted several other small groups to follow. Soon all that was left was the one who had spoken directly to Pinion and two others who seemed to be staying to support it.
"Flamingo, don't take this the wrong way, but we're... uncomfortable with you."
Pinion took a moment to take this in. It was the most honest any bird had ever been with it before. It knew that other birds didn't like it but it had no idea why, and no other bird had ever told it. It took a deep breath and, before the parakeets could decide to fly away it asked, "Please can you tell me what you mean?"
[[==>->otherBirds5]]"Oh coconuts," the parakeet cursed under its breath. Then it set its gaze evenly on Pinion. "Something surrounds you. We can't see it, we can only feel it. It's... bad. Evil."
That was it. That one word stopped Pinion in its tracks. It didn't know how to respond.
Evil?
It watched the parakeet in shock and disbelief as the bird seemed to lose its courage, inch away from Pinion, and nudged its friends with its shoulder so that they could leave together.
Ouch! Well, that was a turn-out for the books, wasn't it? Normally I would offer you a choice but in this situation, there's nothing else much that Pinion can do. Let's watch it be quiet and observe the other birds for a while.
- [[Observe the other birds->observe]]Oh, by the way. Did you notice that I said the flamingo enclosure was open-topped? Yes, that's relevant to the plot, and we can see why if we zoom in on this story.
[[==>->f1]]Pinion watched as the flock's regular keeper and a second human worked together to wrestle a long, flat object, hinged at its half-way point like a flamingo's leg, through the flamingo enclosure's gate. It recognised the regular keeper but not the other one.
[[==>->f2]]Pinion looked at Quill, unsure of how it felt about that. Quill was an older member of the flock and had seen most of the things that happened in and around the cage. Why had it never mentioned anything like this before? "What's wing-trimming?" Pinion asked.
[[==>->f3]]Quill shrugged. "Maybe they fear it, but no flamingo in this flock has ever flown, and I don't believe flamingos can fly."
Pinion tilted its head at this. The logic didn't quite seem to make sense.
[[==>->f4]]The flamingo leader's expression was as vaguely disapproving as ever, and once again Pinion was loathe to test it too much. Langoustine wasn't prone to violence, not like the bald-headed storks in the next cage along, but something about its manner had always told Pinion not to push its luck.
[[==>->f6]]The nearest human picked Langoustine up and lifted it over the fence, The leader barely struggled, instead tucking its head in close and bending its legs, its webbed feet dangling almost as if it felt relaxed. The human changed its grip on Langoustine and opened up one of the leader's wings.
"Is our leader going to be-?" Pinion started to ask, turning its wide, alarmed eyes towards Web.
[[==>->f6b]]But Web was already gone and Pinion had to stretch its neck up high to look for its hatching-mate. It spotted Web several steps away, looking in a completely different direction as if avoiding the risk of meeting Pinion's eye.
Caught between anxiety for the present situation and resignation over Web's eagerness to escape, Pinion uneasily settled down to observe the rest of the wing-trimming.
[[==>->f7]]The humans had nearly finished Langoustine's other wing. With a final cut, the human holding Langoustine put the flamingo leader on the ground, on the far side of the fence. Langoustine ran a few steps away into the pond, and turned to watch the rest of the flock.
Their eyes met across that distance but Langoustine's expression was indifferent, not reassuring, and it turned its head to look at some other member of the flock.
[[==>->f10]]And so the ritual continued. Bird after bird was taken from the flock, trimmed, and put down into the open section of the enclosure. The older birds took the lead until the younger ones felt brave enough to follow. Web found the experience frightening: it thrashed, kicked, and gurgled as the human held it up, but there was nothing it could do to escape and within a few breaths, its primaries were half of what they had been.
[[==>->f11]]What had Pinion been hoping for? To be able to escape this fate by letting the others go first? It felt that being trimmed was so wrong and it desperately wished to stand its ground. And yet, when it looked pleadingly at the rest of its flock, every pair of red eyes that looked back at it implored it, either through anxiety or boredom, to let the humans do what they would.
[[==>->f12]]The two humans pushed the low fence closer and bent it at its hinge so that it opened no more than a bird's beak holding a stone, and cornered Pinion behind the willow tree. Then they picked it up, pulled its wings out with a ruthless sense of routine, and cut the feathers from each one. Pinion honked furiously at them and kicked, trying to reach them so that it could rake at them with its claws, but nothing put them off. When they finally released it, Pinion felt shaken, abused, and full of rage.
[[==>->f12b]]It wanted the two humans to die. It wanted Langoustine, Quill, Pebble, and all the other elders to die too, for failing to protect the younger flamingos. In that moment it even wanted the other young flamingos to die for letting this happen to them without a fight.
It trembled with fury at its powerlessness and decided that right here, right now, it would make a choice.
[[==>->f13]]It was time for Pinion to show these humans what the keepers had done to them. It approached the front of the cage and let its wings unfurl, dropping them to hang by its legs and turning sideways so that they could see the crude cut marks.
[[==>->tour2]]The only reaction Pinion got for its trouble was a bemused look from the humans... and from the rest of the flock, it noticed when it turned around to storm back to the huddle at the edge of the pond. Beak, Covert, and Claw all took extra effort to hurry out of Pinion's way. Everywhere it looked, its flock-mates watched it uncomfortably or turned away to avoid its gaze as if they had no desire to be involved.
Well, that went about as well as could be expected. What would you like Pinion to do next?
- [[Try to convince Langoustine to take revenge on the humans?->convinceLang]]
- [[Try to convince the flock as a whole that the wing-trimming is wrong?->convinceFlock]]But Pinion was too furious to heed this warning. "You let them do it again! I'm not! Next time they come in here I'm going to-"
"What, little flamingo? What are you going to do?"
"I'll- I'll... I'll kill them all!" Pinion ranted.
[[==>->demand2]]It was that special 'K' word that really ended things for Pinion. You don't need me to tell you that Langoustine had never liked Pinion, do you? But neither had any of the other flamingos. They'd never quite been able to identify what they found so unnerving about it, but when Pinion said it would kill the keeper, they finally made the connection that something about their flock-mate signalled danger to them.
Now they finally knew they had a rogue in the flock. A would-be murderer.
[[==>->demand3]]Langoustine lowered its head. "Is that so?" it asked, its voice almost relieved as if it finally knew what was wrong with this young flamingo who had been born into its flock not so long ago. "Then this flock has no place for you."
Pinion begged and pleaded with Langoustine to readmit it to the flock, but the leader would not give in. Pinion couldn't leave, because it was just as cage-bound as the rest of them, but from that day on, no other flamingo spoke to it or even acknowledged its existence, ever again.
(text-colour:red)[''And that's it, I'm afraid: you're out of options. Want to try again?'']
- [[Try to cajole Langoustine into giving a better answer?->cajole]]
- [[Find some other birds to talk to?->otherBirds]]
- [[Start again->begin]]It walked over and looked up in admiration at the little birds. Their green plumage was beautiful, especially when they opened their wings and Pinion got to see their blue wing-tips. So much prettier than the flamingos' bland, uniform pink. The parakeets perched together in groups of two and three, chattering to one another, eating together companionably, or preening each others' feathers.
A couple of these groups glanced in Pinion's direction - uneasily, it seemed.
[[==>->otherBirds2]]For a moment the sight fascinated Pinion. If Langoustine's head remained under the water then it would die. Almost without thinking, Pinion responded to this information by lifting up its foot and placing it on the leader's head, pushing it back down into the water.
Langoustine thrashed and Pinion instinctively stepped on its neck with its other foot to keep it down.
[[==>->fight2]]Something hit Pinion's flank and it rolled off of Langoustine and into the pond water. It struggled to right itself and when it did, saw Pebble standing over it, shock and condemnation in its eyes.
Pinion looked from it to Langoustine and realised what it had done. Trying to kill the leader was unheard of to the point of being unthinkable, but Pinion knew one thing for certain: it would not be forgiven for this mistake.
[[==>->fight3]]
(click-append: "unthinkable")[ (or at least, it should have been)]Pebble stepped forward. "We cannot allow a killer in the flock," it said dangerously.
Pinion stepped backwards, but already several other flamingos were advancing on it, all with the same grim look in their eyes. That was when Pinion knew it would never see another day.
(text-colour:red)[Well, that's the end of that. I think you've hit a literal dead-end. Want to try again?]
- [[Find some other birds to talk to?->otherBirds]]
- [[Be quiet and observe for a while?->observe]]
- [[Start again?->begin]]The keeper looked surprised, and for a moment, alarmed! It used the bucket to shield itself from Pinion's attack.
[[==>->attack2]]
(click-append: "moment")[ (and to Pinion's vast satisfaction)]